I have so many huge souvenir t-shirts which I have never worn and kept for years and years … some even more than a decade. 😛

Today, I finally did something about one of them. 😀

This was what I had … a Stanford t shirt I got from work many years ago which I’ve never worn because the shoulders were way too big, sleeves too long and the neckline was ridiculously tight.

I saw this tutorial online and decided to give my t-shirt a makeover. I tried sewing it for 2 days with my Brother BM 3600 sewing machine. It didn’t work. My Brother sewing machine just wouldn’t shirr! What a POS! I was so annoyed. Then today, I decided to give it a try on my mom’s old antique Flying Man sewing machine and it shirred beautifully. HURRAY FOR ANTIQUE SEWING MACHINES!!!!

I have a pile of t-shirts waiting to be refashioned now! :):):) Do you think I can wear them out? LOL.

I’ve been trying to bake the best chocolate chip cookies for a few years now (“best” as in the way I like my cookies to be :P). I think I may finally have got it today. 😀

I adjusted a recipe I had copied down from somewhere (I forgot where) to make it less sweet and less buttery. The cookies from this recipe yields soft-baked cookies (not crispy) ones as I prefer soft chewy cookies. This recipe contains oats, so if you do not like oats in your cookies, sorry. 😛

Easy Baking: Soft baked Chocolate Chip with Oats Cookies

Preparation time: approx 15 minutes

Baking time: approx 10 minutes (per batch in oven)

Yields: approx 30 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup of unpacked sugar (brown gives more flavour I think, but white is fine too)

2/3 cup of butter, softened at room temperature

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

2 cups of quick cooking oats

1 1/2 cup of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 of teaspoon of salt

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. Pre heat your oven at 175 degree Celsius.

2. With an electric mixer, mix the softened butter with sugar until well blended.

3. Add vanilla essence and egg to the mix and mix till light and fluffy.

4. Add in oats, flour, baking soda and salt. (sift in the flour together with baking soda and salt) and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula.

5. Add chocolate chips and mix till even.

6. Make a ball of cookie dough (about a spoonful). Place the ball of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet. Pat it down to smooth it.

7. Bake cookies at 175 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Let cookies cool on rack before storing away.

I can bake up to 12 cookies at one go as these cookies do not spread out when baked. If you like chewier and sweeter, I guess you can add more sugar but I wouldn’t recommend it. The original recipe used 1 1/2 cups of sugar! I only used 1/2. 😀 If you like more butter taste, you can add up to 1 cup of butter.

I’d been working on this shrug for a month but this week, being stuck at home, got me moving on this and I finally completed it today. 😀 The pattern is originally free from here. But I couldn’t find the pattern on that site (my browser’s cookies settings or something prevented me from accessing the pages). With a help from a fellow raveler, I got a slightly modified pattern from a French site. For joining of the squares, you can visit this other French blog for more information. 🙂

I think I will make it in black too. I think it’s a really pretty pattern. :):):)

The pattern is written in standard crochet symbols chart. Feel free to ask me questions about the pattern if you have trouble reading the diagram! 😀

I had been trying to get back to my gym routine after being sick for a month and being lazy for another month. So, last Monday was the 4th time I went back to the gym after a hiatus of 2 months and boy, I am out of shape. As usual, I would do my warm up and cardio on the treadmill. I was brisk walking for 20 minutes before I turned up the speed for a run. After only after 3 minutes or so, I felt pain on my left lower back. So I stopped and continued to walk instead. Then I proceeded to the incumbent bike for another 20 minutes of cycling. After cardio, I did abs and back exercises on the stability ball, some arm weights and some stretching.

After 24 hours or so, I felt the aches from the abs and back workout, but that was normal. On Wednesday, the aches were still pretty intense so I thought I would instead workout at home with my yoga dvds instead. So I did. I felt OK still. Then on Thursday morning, my lower back started feeling strained. I couldn’t stand up straight. The whole day I walked with a hunch of sort. Then on Friday morning, my phone alarm rang for me to get up to go to work. I couldn’t turn my body in bed to reach my phone. I panicked. I realised that my back was hurting a lot. So I took a day off from work and saw the doctor. Doc gave me painkillers & muscle relaxers. It kinda worked. So on Saturday, it didn’t hurt so bad anymore and I went out with my folks to Universal Studios Singapore in the evening. No rides, just photos and stuff.

On Sunday morning, I woke up pretty okay, but my body felt stiff. I couldn’t stand up straight again. So I took the meds from the doctor. Seems OK for a while.

On Monday morning, I woke up feeling fine and went to work. So, I have to walk for about 10 minutes from the train station to my office. I usually walk fast because I do not like to walk slow. So I walked my usual speed … but half way through the walk, I felt the strain my back again. I had to slow down and walk a lot slower to my office. The whole day at work, I couldn’t stand up straight and I needed to hold on a desk or arms of my chair to ease myself to stand up or sit down.

I decided to visit a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor for acupuncture treatment. I had this same type of sprain a few years ago. I injured my back a few times when lifting heavy equipment at work. The acupuncture treatment was regular, just like my previous treatments. But this time, there were no massages as the Tuina sinsei was not around. The acupunture sinsei advised me to get an xray to see if there’s anything wrong with my bones. When I got home after the treatment, the pain on my back felt worse. I was walking like hunchback of Notre Dame. It was SOOOOOOOOO PAINFUL. I felt so helpless. So I took meds and went to sleep really early. I woke up at 4am because I had to go to the loo. And getting up from my bed was agonising. Lowering myself back into bed was equally painful. The pain was largely on my right hip. I decided to switch the direction I sleep so I would get up on my right instead of my left. It felt better after that. But still, I couldn’t bend or walk standing straight. I was limping around.

Then I went to see the doctor for meds and xray. Getting into the car was tough! I dropped my ID on the floor during registration and had to ask a guy sitting next to me to help me pick it up because I couldn’t bend. lol. Doc gave me 2 types of painkillers she said were pretty potent. Getting onto the xray bed was painful. The radiologist had to help me lie down. lol. And she let me grab onto her shoulder to help lift me up. I felt like I was an old lady at 90. The doc said I need a MRI to see if I have a slipped disc or torn cartilage. But that’s gonna cost me like $800. 😦 So she said she’ll monitor my condition. If the xray shows no problem with the bones and I am still facing problems after medication and physiotherapy, she would then recommend that I get a MRI to be sure. I think I will be able to claim the cost of the MRI scan from my insurance policy.

Doc also gave me the rest of the week off work. So, it’s now Wednesday. I must say the painkillers work. I can stand up and sit down without holding on to something today. I can’t stand up straight still but hopefully by tomorrow, it will be a lot better.